156. Transition Framingham

Current Activities: Transition Framingham is a completely volunteer-run grassroots organization comprised of people who live and/or work in Framingham, and are looking for ways to increase resilience and sustainability in a world of growing population and shrinking resources. We started in late 2011 and currently have over a dozen active members and hundreds of people on our mailing list. We follow the Transition Network model developed by Rob Hopkins in the UK, now with thousands of offshoots on several continents. Our goals are simple but wide-reaching. We: 1. Create awareness and strengthen our organization with small community projects such as gardening, bike clinics, improved transportation information, and community outreach during the holidays. 2. Become involved with local government, businesses, individuals, and other organizations. 3. Form work groups to make inroads in increasing sustainability and resilience in areas such as recycling, permaculture, renewable energy, and education. 4. With 68,000 people living in Framingham, and perhaps another 20,000 working in town, there ought to be at least one project that is of interest or benefit to almost everyone.

Accomplishments: We have collaborated with other environmental groups in our city to form a loose collective called "Green Framingham United." We have spearheaded networking, movie, and "open space" events to get these groups to work together towards common goals. We have a lot of interest in food and gardening in our group and have sponsored a vegetable gardens tour for the past seven years that has inspired many local gardeners. Several working groups have "spun off" of our open space meetings - including a group that founded and maintains a Seed Lending Library at both of our local libraries, a pollinator garden project that led to the establishment of a small pollinator garden at a local park, and a composting group that established several community composts at local churches.